


The Sun Never Sets

by asfragileasaword



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, College, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Teacher-Student Relationship, more like student/teacher to friends to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-06-09 17:22:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15272481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asfragileasaword/pseuds/asfragileasaword
Summary: When Rey is forced to take Dr. Ren's class in order to graduate college on time, she tries to make the best of the situation. Even though he's the most volatile professor at the school, she's dealt with worse people before. She could handle it. What she doesn't expect is to slowly form a tentative friendship with her professor. As Rey and Ren deepen their unlikely friendship, they'll have to deal with the new feelings that arise with it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! This is my first Reylo fic (even though I read them constantly). I'm a total sucker for the professor/student ones, and I'm running out of professor/student fics to read, so I figured I'd write my own. I hope that you all enjoy!

“What do you mean I still need my history credit?”

 

Rey stared at her advisor, completely slack-jawed. She had to have misheard. She had worked too hard to get all of her general education requirements out of the way for there to be an oversight now.

 

But no. Her advisor was shaking her head, still squinting at the computer screen. “It says here that you’ll still need to take a history course in order to graduate.”

 

“But I _can’t_ take history,” Rey protested. “After this semester, my engineering courses will completely fill up my schedule. I won’t have time for any other classes.” It was true. Her last three semesters of college would be completely taken over by courses for her major. She’d thought that she’d planned it all out perfectly so that there wouldn’t be any roadblocks to getting her degree in four years.

 

Now, at the beginning of her junior year, she was already faced with the possibility of not graduating in time because of some tiny oversight she’d made in her class requirements.

 

Her advisor sighed. “That’s true,” she said. Then she brightened a bit. “But that’s also why it’s a good thing that we met now! It’s only the first day of the semester. There’s plenty of time to switch you over to a history course now.”

 

Rey groaned. “I don’t have room for any more classes this semester!”

 

Her advisor looked over her glasses at Rey, her lips pursed. Rey ducked her head. She was ashamed to admit that she didn’t even remember the woman’s name. The two only ever met once every year in August. Rey had grown up being responsible for herself, so when she started going to college, she hadn’t seen a reason to change that. She’d taken it upon herself to arrange her own class schedules. The only reason she’d continued to meet with her advisor as often as she did was that her advisor could get some kind of slap on the wrist or something if Rey never showed up.

 

Without coming to the meeting today, though, Rey may not have found out about the glaring hole in her schedule. She sighed. Her self-sufficiency had just ended up being hard-headed stupidity.

 

“Look, Dr. Gaines – ” she started.

 

“It’s Gerkin.”

 

Rey blushed. “Oh…um…Dr. Gerkin. I already have a full schedule right now. I couldn’t add another class even if I wanted to.”

 

Dr. Gerkin sat back in her chair. “There’s an easy solution to that,” she said. “You’re going to have to drop one of the classes you’re taking now.” She leaned forward again, scrolling on her computer. “Like this one – do you really need to take the intro class to astrophysics for your mechanical engineering degree?”

 

Rey slumped. She had desperately hoped that her advisor wouldn’t have picked up on that.

 

“No…” she admitted. “But it’s something I’ve always wanted to learn about. And my friends are taking the class with me.”

 

Dr. Gerkin eyed her. “So it’s dispensable?”

 

Rey huffed. “I guess,” she said.

 

A couple of clicks later, Rey was no longer enrolled in astrophysics and was instead glaring at a list of history courses on her advisor’s screen.

 

“Well, this decision is going to be easy,” Dr. Gerkin said. “There’s only one class with spots left open.”

 

“Which one?”

 

“19thcentury colonialism with Dr. Ren. 8:30 a.m.”

 

Rey’s forehead met Dr. Gerkin’s desk.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“ – and _then_ she told me that the only class left open was an 8:30 class! An 8:30!”

 

Her best friend scratched his head. “I mean, that might not be so bad,” Finn said. “Aren’t you an early riser anyway?”

 

“Yeah, but that’s for my runs. I’m going to have to get up a whole two hours earlier for them now,” Rey said.

 

He tossed an arm over her shoulder. “It won’t be so bad, Peanut,” he said. “At least you’ll graduate on time.”

 

“That’s true.” Her scholarship wouldn’t have supported her for an extra semester. Besides, she didn’t want to be stuck at Coruscant University for a whole extra semester, even if she could afford it.

 

“It’s a shame,” Finn said, ruffling her hair. “You would have been the most adorable super-senior.”

 

“Who’s going to be a super-senior?” Poe called as he came walked through the front door.

 

“Rey was just complaining about having to drop astrophysics to take history and graduate on time,” Finn said, grinning as Poe walked into their cramped living room, Rose trailing behind him.

 

“Hey, guys,” Rey greeted them. “Is your sister not coming tonight, Rose?”

 

“Nah,” Rose said, shrugging her backpack off. “She wanted to meet up with Jessika for dinner.”

 

“Wait, wait, wait,” Poe said, shaking his head. He directed his attention on Rey. “You’re not taking astrophysics with us?”

 

She groaned. “No. Something went screwy with my schedule and I’ve got to take history instead.”

 

Finn practically cackled behind her. “And it’s an 8:30 class,” he said gleefully.

 

“Hey!” Rey threw a threadbare throw pillow at him. “You were just telling me it wouldn’t be so bad!”

 

“Yeah, well, I was trying to make you feel better,” he said, sticking his tongue out at her.

 

Poe sighed dramatically and plopped onto their secondhand couch. “That class is going to be torture without you, Rey. None of us have a chance of understanding all this space stuff without your help.” Rose and Finn nodded in agreement.

 

Rey snorted, rolling her eyes. “You’ll all be just fine. What about me? I’m the one who has to deal with this ridiculous new class.”

 

“What’s the class? Who’s it with?” Rose asked.

 

“It’s some colonialism class. And the professor has a weird name. Hang on…I think it’s like – Dr. Ren?

 

Poe’s eyes widened as he nearly fell off the couch. “ _What?_ ”

 

“Um,” she said. “Colonialism. Dr. Ren.”

 

Rey heard Rose take a sharp breath. “Rey,” she said, “don’t you know who that is?”

 

“Uhhhhh…no?”

 

“Rey, haven’t you heard the stories about him?” Poe asked. “He’s the closest thing our school will ever have to an evil villain.”

 

Rey just stared at him, one eyebrow raised.

 

“It’s true, Peanut,” Finn said. “He’s terrible.”

 

“Yeah, Finn would know,” Poe said.

 

Rey turned to look at him. “You took him?”

 

“I mean, barely,” Finn said. “I dropped out of the class after I got my first essay back. Took a different history course the next semester.”

 

Poe snorted. “Tell her what Ren said to you.”

 

Finn rubbed the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable at the memory. “Well, we passed in the hallway a few weeks after I dropped his class,” he said, “and Ren said, ‘Hello, traitor.’”

 

Poe was positively gleeful. “Isn’t that _perfect_?” he asked. “A grown man called a student a traitor for not wanting to take his class!”

 

“Poe,” Rose said, rolling her eyes. “Stop.” Poe still chortled, hiding his grin behind a cushion.

 

Rose turned to Rey. “But yeah, the stories about him are really bad. I’ve heard people say that he screams at his classes a lot, and that once he threw a chair at the wall.”

 

“I heard it was a desk,” Poe interjected.

 

“Well, whatever it was, it’s made him, like, the most feared professor at the school,” Rose said.

 

“I don’t remember much maniacal screaming,” Finn said. “But he looked angry all the time. And he did get really, really mad at people who didn’t do the readings.”

 

“So why did you drop his class?” Rey asked, curious despite herself.

 

“Um, well, he wasn’t the nicest grader,” Finn said. “I actually ended up failing every assignment that he gave. After choking on that first big essay, though, I knew I’d never catch up. I wasn’t the only one who dropped that semester.”

 

Rey considered this new information, staying silent for a few minutes while her friends exchanged anecdotes.

 

“I heard that this one time he made another professor cry.”

 

“I think that this senior had a crush on him a few years back and he threw a book at her whenever she visited his office.”

 

“Well Emma’s sister said that once he failed everyone on a test just because some guy kept showing up late to class.”

 

“I don’t know about that, but I wouldn’t put it past him.”

 

“Duh. He’s a nightmare.”

 

Rey spoke up. “He’s not a nightmare,” she said. “Not really.”

 

Taking in their stares, she smiled at them. Still smiling, she turned to Finn. “Look,” she said, “we survived the system together. Since we were kids, we’ve had to actually _live_ with nightmares. I had to live with Unkar Plutt for years, for God’s sake.” She straightened her shoulders. “I don’t care who he is or what he’s done. I’ll survive his class just fine.”

 

 

* * *

 

  

Rey was feeling much less certain about her courageous Monday night declaration by the time Wednesday morning rolled around and she actually had to go to Dr. Ren’s class. Her first day of classes on Tuesday had done nothing to calm the budding anxiety growing in her stomach. She had spent Tuesday night reading online reviews of the professor’s classes, and they hadn’t instilled much confidence in her.

 

_He failed me without even giving me a chance to ask for help._

_If you aren’t already a history major, DON’T take Dr. Ren. He demands way too much work for an intro class._

_I’m pretty sure I peed my pants at least five times this semester, and every single time was his fault._

 

The reviews rattled around in her brain, distracting her from enjoying her walk across campus as much as she usually did. She had talked a big game with Finn, Poe, and Rose the other night, but in reality she was worried. She knew that she could normally handle whatever crappy professors were thrown her way, but she really needed this class to work out, and she wasn’t great at history anyway. A bad professor wouldn’t make matters any easier.

 

Trying to push her nerves to the back of her mind, she scuttled towards the humanities building.

 

 _You survived Unkar Plutt, and you can survive this,_ she reminded herself firmly. _You survived the system, and you can survive this. You will be an engineer, and no one – not even the scourge of Coruscant University – will get in your way._

 

Taking a deep breath, she opened her classroom door. Only a few people had arrived so far. Rey made her way to a seat in the middle of the room, hoping that her spot would be inconspicuous enough to deflect any special attention from the professor.

 

As the clock ticked forward, the room slowly filled. Rey fiddled with her notebook and pens as the other students took their seats. It definitely wasn’t going to be a large class, but there were enough people in it that she wouldn’t stand out too much.

 

At 8:28, a great hulking shadow of a man came in. Walking to the front, he put the stack of papers that he was carrying down onto the desk and silently began to busy himself with getting the projector turned on. 

 

Almost unconsciously, Rey sat forward in her desk. So, this was the feared Professor Ren. He was a lot younger than she had expected. He couldn’t have been much older than twenty-eight – maybe thirty. His long nose sat on a face with features that seemed slightly lopsided – lips that were a bit too full, cheekbones that stuck out a bit too much, and a chin that was a bit too weak to support the heavy features above it. A pair of glasses was perched on his nose. His face might have made him underwhelming if his body hadn’t been so intimidating. Standing somewhere well over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and arms, he loomed above his students. With his entirely black ensemble and his matching dark hair, he resembled some kind of towering bat. Or maybe the Grim Reaper.

 

Turning his attention to the students, his eyes did a quick once-over of the classroom. Whatever he saw must have displeased him, because his lips thinned out into a straight line. Without saying a word, he began passing out the papers that he had been carrying when he came in.

 

“Welcome to 19th Century Colonialism,” he finally said when all of the pages were distributed. His voice was so much deeper than Rey had been expecting – she nearly started in her seat when he spoke. “I’m Dr. Ren, and I’ll be teaching this course. As you can see on the syllabi I just handed out, we have a lot of ground to cover, so it would be best if we could make it through reading the syllabus without any unnecessary distractions.”

 

His eyes roamed over the classroom again. “Before we begin, I want to see a show of hands. Who in this room is a freshman?”

 

Almost every single hand went up.

 

“Sophomores?”

 

Only two hands went up.

 

“Juniors?”

 

At that, Rey tentatively rose her hand. She was the only junior in the class. There were no seniors.

 

After he finished hi survey, Dr. Ren frowned over his glasses.

 

“I’m assuming that those of you who are freshmen have never heard of me before,” he said. “I’ll go ahead and tell you – I’m a demanding professor, and I ask for my students to give me the best work possible. This course has a lot of reading, and more writing than most introductory history classes. You should be made aware of that before fully committing to the course.

 

“I do not accept tardiness, I do not accept late work, and I will not give you any help if you miss one of my classes. You’re all adults now. Lend each other notes, form study groups, and try to take responsibility for yourselves.”

 

He paused, letting his words sink in.

 

“If you signed up for this class and you are not a morning person, then drop it. You will stop coming to class by October, and you will fail. If you’re not a fast reader, then drop the course. You won’t keep up. If you were looking for an easy A, this isn’t it. Drop it.” His eyes then found Rey’s. “And if you’re here just to fulfill some graduation requirement and aren’t willing to give my class your full effort, I suggest that you slack off in someone else’s classroom. Drop my course.”

 

Rey bristled, feeling her face grow red as she rashly opened her mouth to retort.

 

He didn’t give her the chance. Spinning around to pick up a syllabus for himself, he began reading out loud.

 

While he read, Rey sat in her seat and stewed in her anger. She made the mistake of looking up once, immediately looking down again when she caught his eye and he raised a single brow.

 

It was going to be a long semester.


	2. Chapter 2

“He literally told me to drop his class, Finn!” Rey whined as she speared a dumpling. “I mean, he told pretty much everyone in the room to drop his class, but that last comment was for me and only me.”

 

Finn swirled a bite of lo mien around his chopsticks and shoved it into his mouth, frowning at her. He had splurged and ordered Chinese takeout for dinner as a sort of reward for Rey’s first day of taking classes from the devil. She tried to be as cheerful as possible to thank her roommate for the meal, but throughout the evening her anger had only intensified. Even though she was eating with just as much gusto as she normally did, the little white boxes of food hadn’t done much to soothe her battered pride. She glowered at her box of rice while Finn swallowed his noodles.

 

“So are you going to follow his advice?” Finn asked. “Are you going to drop the class?”

 

Rey stared at him, affronted. “Of course not!”

 

“Well, why not? If he literally told you to piss off, then why would you stay?”

 

“I – you – ” she spluttered. “How can you say that? You know that I have to take this class!” At Finn’s pointed stare, she muttered, “And I’m angry and an irrationally stubborn person and I’m going to prove to this jerk that I can do well in his class.”

 

Finn put his lo mien down, leaning toward her. “And how do you expect to do that when you never got above a C in every single history class in high school?” he asked.

 

Rey glared at him. “I will have you know that I am older and wiser now,” she said. “College has taught me a ton of study skills. Young Rey didn’t know how to research or write an essay. College Rey does.”

 

Well, she _kind of_ knew how to research and write essays. She’d had a weird English professor her freshman year. The guy was as old as dirt and he was so hunched over that he barely came up to her hip, but he had been diligent in his teaching. After reading the first (terrible) essay she’d written for his class, he’d made her come to his office hours twice a week. She wasn’t really sure what he had taught her while she was with him – he had mainly just spouted confusing anecdotes and proverbs, occasionally rapping her over the head with a ruler when she zoned out. But eventually she figured out that the weird little sayings were actually supposed to teach her how to write.

 

And…they kind of did? She still isn’t sure how things like “ _Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose”_ and “ _Mind what you have learned”_ improved her writing, but they must have, because her essays kept getting better and he stopped taking rulers to her skull so often. The rulers hadn’t really mattered to her – he was so old and feeble that she barely even felt the taps. But she was proud that she had gotten good enough at writing to not have to be subjected to them anymore.

 

Professor Yoda had been an amazing man. He became a sort of unofficial advisor for her, and she frequently found herself in his office even after she was done taking his class.

 

He died the summer after her freshman year. She had been living on campus that summer, and so she was able to go to the funeral. She cried the whole time. It was the first time she could remember crying since she was a little girl.

 

Despite the fact that he was gone, Professor Yoda’s lessons had stayed with her. She was a (slightly) more confident writer now, and she wasn’t afraid to ask her professors for help when she was _really_ desperate.

 

So she knew what she had to do.

 

She sighed.

 

“We’ll see how the first few weeks go,” she said. “And if I still really, really suck at history…well, I’ll just have to go pester Dr. Ren in his office every day until he agrees to help me.”

 

Finn almost choked on his food. “You’d willingly go spend time with that guy?”

 

“Yeah,” she said. “He’s an ass, but he’s the ass who holds the fate of my grade in his hands. It won’t be fun, but I’ll do it.”

 

She had to do it. She would prove to Dr. Ren that she was putting effort into his class, and she would get her history credit. She’d hit two birds with one stone.

 

“Better you than me,” Finn said, shaking his head.

 

 

* * *

 

 

That Friday morning, Rey left her apartment early, prepared to be the model student. The night before, the garage that she worked at part-time had kept her later than usual, leaving her fewer hours than normal to complete her homework. It had been a late night, and her eyes were heavy. Still, she had to stay awake through Dr. Ren’s class, so she decided to swing by the campus coffee shop to shock herself awake with as much caffeine as possible.

 

Rey smiled at Jessika as she walked through the front door. Jess had been working behind the counter of the school’s coffee shop – cheesily named _Coruscant Coffee_ by a panel of ancient faculty members about half a dozen years back – since she was a freshman. Jessika, like most of Rey’s other friends, was one of the few students at the university who had a job. It was an expensive private school, and most of the student body came from upper-middle class backgrounds. She and Finn had already known each other, but then they and the other scholarship students had sort of gravitated towards one another until they had formed their own little group.

 

Jessika, Paige, and Rose all worked at the coffee shop, while Finn did janitorial work in a couple of the school’s buildings. Poe, a senior like Jessika and Paige, was the only one of them who didn’t need a job, but no one begrudged him for it. They all wished they didn’t need theirs.

 

Rey’s desire to have enough money to be jobless hadn’t been so strong in a long time. It was easy to work at the little auto repair shop just off campus in the summers when she had no classes, but getting back into the routine of balancing work and school would be difficult. Blearily, she ordered her coffee – with four shots of espresso.

 

Nodding sympathetically, Jess rang her up. “You hanging in there?” she asked Rey.

 

Rey offered her a tired smile. “Yup. How about you? We missed you and Paige the other night for dinner.”

 

Jessika groaned. “I know,” she said, “But both Paige and I had so many meetings that night. It was crazy. We figured we’d just eat between the madness, you know?”

 

Jess and Paige were both leaders in dozens of groups all across campus. Whenever Rey started feeling sorry for herself because of her schedule, she just had to look at Jess and Paige to remind herself that she could be a lot busier.

 

“Well, you’re always welcome,” Rey said. “I think we’re all getting together again tonight. You should come.”

 

“I definitely will,” Jessika said, handing her the coffee. “Did Paige and I miss anything exciting on Monday?”

 

“Just me complaining about my new history class,” Rey laughed. “Speaking of, I probably need to get there now. The professor is a total jerk. I’ve gotta show up on time and prove that I’m taking his class seriously or he may breathe fire.”

 

Jess waved, and Rey turned to leave. As she walked away, she heard the person who had been in the queue behind her say, “One hot chocolate for the total jerk, please.”

 

Rey knew that deep voice.

 

She stopped in her tracks.

 

Turning slowly, with her heart thundering, she looked behind her. Dr. Ren was standing at the front of the line, looking directly at her with his eyebrows raised. Jessika was glancing between them like she was watching a tennis match, her face horrified.

 

 Dr. Ren didn’t break eye contact with Rey as he said coolly to Jessika, “My hot chocolate.”

 

“Oh!” Jessika said, startled. “Right!” She turned away from the disaster in front of her to busy herself with his drink.

 

Stupidly, all Rey could think of to say in that moment was, “Um…so…you order hot chocolate?”

 

She could have been imagining it, but it looked like Dr. Ren was torn between a laugh and a scowl. “Yes,” he said simply.

 

“Um – ” Rey squeaked. “Okay! See you in class.”

 

And with that, she turned and scurried out.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Oh my god. Oh my god oh my god oh my god._

That was all Rey’s brain seemed capable of thinking as she ran to the classroom, chose a seat in the back, and pulled out her notebook.

 

_Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god._

Her notoriously volatile professor had just heard her insult him. She was already walking on thin ice as it was, but now her chances of passing the class seemed nonexistent.

 

If she didn’t pass the class, she wouldn’t have her history credit. Then she wouldn’t be able to fit all of her major courses into her last three semesters and she’d have to drop out before she finished her degree because she couldn’t afford a semester that wasn’t covered by a scholarship.

 

What had she just done?

 

 _On the bright side,_ she thought dully, _Poe would probably love to hear about me calling Dr. Ren a total jerk right in front of him._

 

She didn’t have much more time to contemplate her impending doom once Dr. Ren swept into the room. He was wearing all black again and carrying a cup that Rey knew was filled with hot chocolate.

 

“Let’s get started,” he said, not sparing a glance at her.

 

“Since this is an introductory course, we’ll start with the basics,” he continued. “This course will be focused on the British Empire in the 19thcentury, but it will pull from events in the late 18thand 20thcenturies as well. We will take time at the end of the semester to briefly discuss the French Empire and to compare the governance of their colonies with how the British governed theirs, but that’s not something you’ll have to worry about for a while. Now,” he said, his eyes scanning the classroom, “who can tall me the single most basic quote about the British Empire that every single one of your high school history teachers should have already ingrained into your brains?”

 

The room was silent for a moment. Then, a pimply freshman sitting in the front row hesitantly raised his hand. Dr. Ren nodded at him.

 

“Th – the sun never sets on the British Empire?”

 

“Close enough,” Dr. Ren said, turning to write something on the whiteboard behind him.

 

The hour that followed was one of the most anxiety-ridden hours that Rey had experienced since coming to college. Of course, it couldn’t compare to the times she had spent hiding in her closet from Unkar as he’d gone on drunken rages, or the heart-rendering days before she was placed into a new foster home, but it was easily the most stressful class she’d had. Her pen was scribbling notes non-stop as Dr. Ren spoke at a furious pace, and every time his eyes passed over her, her heart spluttered to a stop.

 

Why hadn’t he thrown a chair at her yet? Wasn’t that what he normally did to idiotic students?

 

By the time he dismissed them, she was hesitantly hopeful that he’d forgotten her slight against him.

 

That hope was shattered when he said, “Miss Niima? A word.”

 

She shut her eyes, trying to bury her nerves. Then, shoving her notebook into her bag, she followed him down the hall to the History Department.

 

He strode straight to the back of the department, and her shorter legs struggled to keep up with his brisk, long stride. Entering through his office door, he called, “Close the door behind you.”

 

Swallowing nervously, she did as she was told.

 

After closing the door, she turned to face him in the cluttered office. He had already walked behind his desk, sitting in the chair. His desk was covered in papers, sticky notes, and books. A bookshelf pressed in on her left side, stretching up to the ceiling and bursting with paperbacks, fat tomes, skinny pamphlets, and ornate hardbacks. More books were stacked intermittently across the office floor.

 

“Sit, Miss Niima,” he said.

 

She sat in the chair on her side of the desk.

 

Leaning forward, he captured her gaze. She straightened her back and tried to do her best to meet his stare head-on. Nervous though she was, her experiences in the foster care system hadn’t taught her to cower. She didn’t want to give him that satisfaction, particularly after her panicked reaction in the coffee shop.

 

“So,” he said after a minute of silence. “I’m a ‘total jerk’?”

 

She winced, but then steadied her face. “I’m sorry you overheard that,” she said as evenly as she could. “I shouldn’t have said it.”

 

“But you did,” he pointed out.

 

“Yes, but…” Realizing that there was no excuse she could give that would be acceptable, she sighed and decided to tell the truth. “Look, I didn’t know who you were before I got into this class. I’d never heard of you until all my friends told me how difficult you were…as a professor,” she hastily added on. “But even after hearing them out, I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. Then you had to go and basically tell me to drop your class on the first day.” She squared her shoulders. “Maybe I shouldn’t have insulted you to my friend, but you shouldn’t have assumed I’d be a bad student and hurt my pride before even meeting me.”

 

In the silence that followed, she suddenly felt very shy and very, very uncomfortable. “But…” she stammered, “I – I do want to work. Hard. For your class,” she finished lamely.

 

Dr. Ren ran a hand through his hair and let out a deep breath through his nose. “Miss Niima, I didn’t call you in here because I’m angry at you.”

 

“You…you didn’t?” Rey asked, floored.

 

He snorted. “God no,” he said. “What you said was completely true, and everyone knows it.”

 

Rey wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say here. “Um…everyone knows that you’re…a jerk?”

 

“Of course. Because I am.” He leaned back in his chair. “I called you in here to assure you that I’m not mad that you spoke your mind about me. You looked like you were ready to have a heart attack all through class today. I wanted to put your mind at rest. If you’re going to look that scared in my class, I want it to be because you screwed up and deserve my anger rather than just imagining that you do.”

 

“Oh. Um.” She didn’t quite follow his logic, but she was grateful for it anyway. “Thank you, Dr. Ren.”

 

He waved her thanks away. “I won’t apologize for what I said on the first day though.” Seeing her tense up, he said, “I’ve had too many upperclassmen take my class for the same reason that I’m sure you’re there, and then instead of paying attention they goof off all semester. I always get calls from their parents for failing them. Sometimes they even pull the Dean in.” To her utter surprise, he rolled his eyes. “Ridiculous. It’s a waste of my time and my patience. So I issue that warning anytime I have a junior or a senior in one of my intro classes. You weren’t a special case.”

 

Rey felt her indignation deflate. “People’s parents call because of their grades?” She couldn’t imagine having someone that angry on her behalf. None of her foster parents had even asked to see her grades, let alone gotten mad at a teacher about them.

 

“All the time,” he said.

 

“Well, you won’t have to worry about that from me, sir,” she said. She almost added _because my parents aren’t around,_ but she stopped herself before she could embarrass herself any further. “I’m here to work. I want to pass. I _need_ to pass this class.”

 

He looked as though he were sizing her up for a moment. Then he nodded. “Good,” he said. “I expect to see you dedicating yourself.”

 

“I’ll try my best,” she promised.

 

He nodded again. “That’s all. You can go.”

 

Rey rose from her seat, feeling decidedly more at peace than she had five minutes before. “Thank you, sir.”

 

She grabbed her bag and left his office, her knees weak with relief.

 

_I still have a shot at this._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you were wondering, that famous quote about the sun never setting on the British Empire is actually always said wrong. It was originally written as the "empire on which the sun never sets."
> 
> Thank you all for all of the initial support! I was so excited that I went ahead and sped through writing the next chapter. You all are the best!


	3. Chapter 3

About a month into taking Dr. Ren’s class, Rey was starting to question some of the rumors about him.

 

She wasn’t skeptical about his class’s difficulty – she had ample proof of that. He was an absurdly demanding professor. Every night, she was forced to bury herself in books and academic journals. She’d had no clue there was so much _stuff_ out there about the British Empire. Since she’d always been terrible at history, she just never really paid attention. But now she was being forced to, and she was drowning in it all.

 

Because of the huge piles of work Dr. Ren assigned, she often had to stay up until the early hours of the morning to finish the work for his class, to complete her work for her other classes, and to maintain her normal hours at the garage. After coming back to her apartment smelling like oil and grime, she’d shower quickly and spend the rest of her night on the ratty beige couch in her living room with her work spread out around her. Finn would do his best not to distract her, occasionally making her dinner when she forgot to eat.

 

One late September night (or early morning, depending on your perspective), Finn stumbled out of his room, bleary eyed.

 

“Rey,” he said, his voice raspy with sleep. “Are you going to bed soon?”

 

Rey looked up from the article she was reading on venereal disease legislation in India. Blinking, she checked the time on her battered phone. It was 2:33 a.m.

 

“Oh. Yeah. Yeah,” she muttered.

 

“I know you need this class, Peanut,” Finn said. “But do you have to be quite so… _persistent_ about it?”

 

Rey frowned, thinking of all of the upperclassmen Dr. Ren had failed. “Yes.”

 

He sighed. “Okay,” he said sleepily, shuffling back to his room.

 

So yeah. Dr. Ren’s class was hard. She was losing sleep. But she had been expecting that. She’d been warned. However, even though the rumors about his intense homework assignments turned out to be true, the other rumors about his infamous temper hadn’t been completely accurate.

 

At least, not yet.

 

Dr. Ren wasn’t warm and cuddly. His words were usually harsh, and he wasn’t afraid to tell students that they had answered incorrectly. But he hadn’t screamed at anyone yet. He hadn’t shoved books off of any desks, intentionally humiliated his students, or failed everyone in the class. He hadn’t even thrown a chair once.

 

It all left Rey wondering whether he was actually as horrific as everyone said he was. Or maybe he just hadn’t gotten angry enough to show his true colors yet. She wasn’t sure.

 

Despite his rather tame demeanor so far, everyone in the class was walking on eggshells around him. Early on in the semester, the freshmen had been clued in about Dr. Ren’s infamous temper. His nefarious reputation, combined with his blunt mannerisms, had quelled even the most enthusiastic students. They were all noticeably nervous to answer questions or contribute to discussions.

 

Unfortunately, despite everyone’s reluctance to speak, participation was a significant portion of the grade. Rey, unlike all of the underclassmen in the class, didn’t have the time in her schedule to take another history class later on, so she ended up speaking up the majority of the time Dr. Ren asked a question.

 

At first, she hated it.

 

Rey was sweating bullets the first time she raised her hand. Answering questions in a math class or an engineering course was one thing – she was always confident in her answers in those subjects. But to volunteer to expose herself to ridicule in a class that she was uncomfortable with, to a professor who may or may not throw school supplies at her head? It was terrifying.

 

“Miss Niima,” Dr. Ren said, calling on her.

 

“Um…well…it doesn’t make sense that colonialism would be defined in terms of formal governance,” she said, only partially answering his original question.

 

“Yes? And why is that?” he prodded.

 

“Well…I mean, if you look at the reading from last night, there was that tiny section on China. And China was never an official part of the British Empire. But they still, like, basically controlled China’s economy, right? They even went to war over it.”

 

“That’s correct,” he said. “But what’s your point?”

 

“My point is that they still controlled China somehow! So what if they didn’t have some kind of fake government set up there? They still had control over a major aspect of life, right? Money is important, and Britain controlled the money.” Rey gathered confidence as she kept speaking. “And British people still lived there even though the Chinese didn’t want them there. The reading had said missionaries went there, spreading their religion. So it was monetary and ideological colonialism, but it should still be considered colonialism.” She paused for breath. “I mean…right?”

 

Dr. Ren looked at her over the rims of his glasses with something in his eyes she couldn’t quite place. Surprise? Satisfaction? Or maybe she was reading him completely wrong and he was about to declare her wrong in front of the whole class.

 

“That’s an excellent point, Miss Niima,” he said. She let out a sigh of relief. “That’s only one example of what we mean when we say colonialism is an extremely complicated entity. Even its definition is hard to pin down. Does a country become part of a greater colonial empire when it has been beaten in combat? Submitted to a new government? Controlled economically? Influenced culturally? Given a new flag or a new name? That’s exactly what we’ll have to explore in this course.”

 

Rey sank into her seat as Dr. Ren continued to talk, feeling lightheaded, as though she had just run a few miles in the past couple of minutes.

 

Speaking to Dr. Ren got easier after a few more classes. She figured out that as long as she really read the readings, she could kind of keep up – for the most part. At the very least, she could answer some questions.

 

Of course, that meant that she had to actually do the readings. And that meant staying up far later than she wanted to most nights.

 

 

* * *

 

 

A few days after Finn had snapped her out of her early morning study stupor, Rey was struggling to keep her eyes awake in Dr. Ren’s class.

 

She had stayed up until past 4:00 a.m. She had a huge project due in her thermodynamics class that afternoon, and it had dominated her past three nights. After she’d finished it at midnight, she’d struggled to stay awake to research for her first real research paper in Dr. Ren’s class. The only problem was that she seriously had no idea what to write about. After spending hours flipping through database after database of historical journals and coming up with absolutely nothing, she’d fallen asleep at her desk on top of her clunky old laptop.

 

Now, she cracked the crick in her neck that her short night’s sleep had left her. Fighting back a yawn, she looked at the clock for what felt like the thousandth time. The hand had only moved forward four minutes.

 

 _Just make it…fifteen more minutes…_ she told herself sleepily.

 

– And then she woke up mid-snore.

 

She had fallen asleep at her desk, with her head hanging back and her mouth wide open.

 

Eyes wide and wiping at her chin in case she had drooled, Rey brought her gaze to the front of the classroom.

 

Dr. Ren was staring at her, his lips in a tight line.

 

“Class is dismissed.” His voice was tense. “Miss Niima, please come to my office.”

 

Shame-faced and flushed, Rey ducked her head and packed her things.

 

A part of her brain was screaming. _So WHAT if I was asleep? College kids sleep in class all the time. What the hell makes him so special that he gets to be angry at me about it?_

But, really, she was too embarrassed to voice her thoughts.

 

For the second time, Rey followed her professor to his office.

 

Once the door was shut behind them, Rey gathered enough indignant courage to look at Dr. Ren. He wasn’t sitting this time. Instead, he was standing, leaning against the windowsill that lined the back wall of the office. His shirt was gray today (which, along with navy, seemed to be the only color alternatives to his frequently black clothing), and the shirtsleeves were rolled up. She noticed that his fisted hands were almost imperceptibly tightening and loosening. It made the muscles of his forearms stand out.

 

Those muscles looked primed to throw one of his many books at her.

 

“Why,” he said lowly, “did you _snore_ through my lecture today?”

 

Rey dropped her gaze. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

 

“No, I don’t want to hear that it won’t happen again.” His breaths were short. “I want to hear how you will prevent it from happening again.”

 

When she didn’t respond, he continued. “I told you how often students your age have failed my class. I don’t want to see it happen again. You’ve been doing well up until now – one of the best in the class, in fact. But I haven’t seen you take notes for the past two classes. And today you fell asleep. Your nap was loud enough – ” she winced. Finn had always teased her about her snoring, but from Dr. Ren it wasn’t said with affection like it was with Finn. There was a bite to the words. “ – to distract your other classmates. So, I want you to tell me how you will prevent such a mishap from happening in my classroom ever again.”

 

Face burning with both embarrassment and anger, Rey shot out, “I can’t stop it from happening again.”

 

“Yes, you can.” He was adamant. “Don’t stay out so late on weeknights. Don’t drink or party on weeknights. Don’t go on dates on weeknights. Don’t do whatever you’ve been doing that’s made you look like utter hell.”

 

Rey gaped at him, her mouth moving wordlessly for a minute. “Don’t _party?_ ” she spat. “Is that what you think I do in my spare time? Party and drink and flirt?”

 

“I don’t know what you do!” He ran a hand through his hair, leaving pieces askew. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. But you’ve looked exhausted all week and now it’s starting to affect your performance. So stop doing whatever it is and actually put effort in for this class.”

 

“Put _effort?_ ” she retorted. She wanted to scream. “Effort? This is all your fault! I look like this because of you!”

 

His face darkened. “Excuse me?” he said, a dangerous edge to his voice. Rey didn’t care. All shame forgotten, she barreled on.

 

“I look like this because of your class!” she seethed. “I’ve barely slept all month! Do you think that your class is the only one I have? That I don’t have classes – _for my actual major –_ that I have to do just as much work for? Because, if you haven’t noticed, I’m not a history student. I suck at history. In fact, it takes me twice as long to read everything you give us because I don’t understand it! I have to read it two or three times over. And heaven forbid I allow my standing in your class to slip because I want to learn what I need to learn for my major, or because I’m asked to stay an extra shift at work. I’m not dropping my job, because I need the money or I’ll be homeless. I’m not dropping all of my other classes. So you tell me, professor – how am I going to prevent an accidental nap in your class? Because I sure as hell don’t know.”

 

Dr. Ren’s face was blank. He hadn’t shown any emotion the entire time she was talking.

 

Breathing heavily, Rey stepped back. She hadn’t meant for her temper to get so out of hand; but, after he’d insulted her pride for the second time this semester by suggesting that she’d been partying, she had snapped.

 

She realized that she may have made a major mistake, but she didn’t really care. She took a breath, trying to even out her next words. “I don’t drink, sir. At all.” She hadn’t taken a single sip of alcohol even once. After her teenage years of being terrorized by Unkar and his drunk friends – hitting her, pawing at her, threatening her – she had decided that no drink was worth the trouble that it brought. The fact that Dr. Ren would suggest that she had put her future in jeopardy for a vice she didn’t have made her want to punch something.

 

“I just work at my job a lot and have a really demanding major. That’s it,” she finished.

 

After a beat of silence, Dr. Ren said, “What are you studying?” His face was still unreadable.

 

“Mechanical engineering,” was her clipped response.

 

He nodded. He opened his mouth to say more, but he was cut off by a huge gurgling roar that ripped through the quiet room like a knife.

 

Both of their eyes went to Rey’s stomach.

 

“Sorry,” she muttered.

 

“I guess you need to eat,” he said impassively.

 

She nodded. “Um…I don’t think I’ve eaten since yesterday morning? Maybe?” She hoped that Finn didn’t find that out. He was a total mother hen when it came to her eating habits.

 

“Stay here,” was all he said. Then he strode past her, opened the door, and stepped into the hallway.

 

Standing awkwardly for a couple of minutes, Rey wondered if she should sit down. What were the proper rules of etiquette when it came to being left alone in the office of the guy you basically just screamed at?

 

Before she could make up her mind, Dr. Ren strode back in. He handed her a lump wrapped in napkins and made her choice for her by saying, “Sit.”

 

She complied. Opening the napkins as she sank down, she saw two donuts. At her confused look, Dr. Ren said, “Phasma brought breakfast in for the department this morning. If you need more I can get them.”

 

Rey didn’t know who Phasma was, but she decided right then and there that she would die for the woman. “Um – thanks,” she said. “These should be good.”

 

Dr. Ren sat in his desk chair. For the first time since her explosion, she could read some of the emotion on his face. He looked tired.

 

“Eat, and then we’ll talk.”

 

She didn’t have to be told twice. She wolfed down both of the chocolate-frosted donuts in what must have been a record time for her, trying to ignore just how uncomfortable of a situation she was in.

 

She had just berated her professor. In his office. And now she was getting crumbs on his carpet.

 

Swallowing her last bite, she hoped he didn’t notice the mess until after she left.

 

“Now,” he said as she struggled not to lick her fingers, “we need to make you some kind of game plan.”

 

“I’m sorry. What?”

 

“You need some kind of plan to make all of this easier. We’re going to figure out something to keep your grades up and give you a healthy amount of sleep.”

 

She couldn’t have been more surprised if an alien had landed in front of her and offered her a ride on its spaceship. “You – you want to help me?”

 

He rolled his eyes, ever the charming and polite professor. “Yes. You’re not going to pass any of your classes if you go on this way, and none of my students will pass if you keep snoring during my lectures.”

 

“Hey. Lay off the snoring. I don’t do it all the time.”

 

He ignored her. “So we need to make you a game plan.”

 

“Look,” she said. “The only plan you need to help me with is my plan for your research paper. That’s one of the reasons I was up so late last night. I’m looking and looking, but I can’t find anything that I think I could write on.”

 

It was his turn to look surprised. “You haven’t found anything yet? It’s on colonial India. Do you know how much there is on that?”

 

“That’s the problem!” she groaned. “There’s too much. I feel like I’m treading water and not getting anywhere.”

 

At his clear confusion, she said, “Look. You know how to look for this stuff. You know the whole history and all the gory details. I’m starting from square one. I literally know nothing. I need some guidance. If I could get that, then I think I could handle my workload a bit better.”

 

“…Alright. I think I can offer my assistance then. A roadmap of sorts. Would that be acceptable?”

 

Rey nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. Absolutely.”

 

“Are you normally free during this hour?” he asked.

 

“Yup.” She normally tried to take a nap at the back of the library at this time, but she was pretty sure that could wait.

 

“Meet me here tomorrow then and we’ll get started.”

 

She couldn’t help the smile that broke out onto her face. It was such an odd shift from her earlier emotions, but she didn’t care. She was going to have help. She was going to have help and pass his class and graduate in four years.

 

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

 

He waved her thanks off, muttering, “Now go eat something more nutritious than a donut.”

 

He stopped her as she reached his office door. “And Miss Niima?”

 

She turned back to look at him, and when her eyes met his, he said, “You really are doing well in the class. I…perhaps I should not have…er…”

 

She looked at his tall, bulky figure folded behind his desk. His hands were tightened into fists again, and his lips were moving slightly without making any sound.

 

Something in Rey’s heart softened for her angry, awkward giant of a professor.

 

“Yeah,” she said. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have either. But it’ll be okay, I think. And Professor? You can just call me Rey.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all enjoyed the exact monologue I wish I could have thrown at some of my professors. Let's all live vicariously through Rey.


	4. Chapter 4

Rey stretched her arms above her head, looking out across her apartment complex’s parking lot. It was a particularly gray morning. The sun hadn’t quite yet risen, and there was a light fog hovering over everything. As a small breeze drifted by, she shivered, bringing her arms back down to her body. It was late September, and the wind was starting to carry the promise of a chilly autumn on it.

 

Taking a deep breath, Rey shoved her earbuds in and started running. Crossing the parking lot, she found her way to a small footpath that would take her on her favorite running route through campus.

 

Running had always been a solace for Rey. When she was young, she’d started to run every morning before her foster family woke up. In those cool, quiet hours, when no one was awake but her, she could almost pretend that she led a different life. Maybe a life with a loving family waiting for her back home. Maybe a life in which she was a normal girl training for the school cross-country team so she could do a sport with all of her friends. Whenever she was flying through the dark, she could imagine anything.

 

But the foster homes kept changing. She kept ending up with people who were less and less loving. She was never able to afford the travel and uniform fees of any school team. She never had lots of friends who wanted her to play a sport with them. Her early-morning imaginings stayed just that – the stuff of imagination. The older she got, the more running became a necessary escape for her.

 

Finn had always thought she was crazy for willingly giving up sleep just to go do something so painful. But it was as necessary to her as breathing. The freedom she felt while running couldn’t be had any other way.

 

Since school had started back a month before, she hadn’t had much time to run. She had needed sleep more than exercise. But now she was determined to get her morning routine back on track.

 

Besides, she was pretty sure that her reduced endorphins levels had actually encouraged her to snap at Dr. Ren the day before.

 

She groaned as she thought back to it. Time and space had a funny way of making one regret things, and her explosion the day before was no exception. Even though Dr. Ren hadn’t thrown anything at her or yelled – even though he’d gone so far as to kind of _apologize_ – she knew that she’d crossed a line.

 

She hadn’t felt that bad about berating her professor until she’d recounted the story to Poe and Finn that night. They had both frozen, staring at her as if she’d grown three heads.

 

_“What…what did you say to him, Peanut?” Finn whispered, looking a little shell-shocked._

_Rey looked down, her ears burning. “Um…I told him that it was his fault I’d fallen asleep in his class…and that I couldn’t stop it from happening again…”_

_Poe let out a deep breath. “Rey. I thought you wanted to pass this class?”_

_“I do!” Rey protested. “I just got so frustrated. And I told you what he said! He said he’s going to help me!”_

_Poe shook his head. “Rey, you still can’t talk that way to a professor. Especially one who’s that violent!”_

_“I haven’t seen any evidence of violence,” Rey said, crossing her arms._

_Finn snorted. “That was still a stupid move.”_

_“Yeah…well…” Rey could think of nothing to say in her own defense except for, “It ended well though.”_

_“Whatever,” Poe said. “I bet you he’ll be mad about it tomorrow. He’s gonna hold it against you. The guy is psycho. And you disrespected him like crazy. Like, I’m cool with it – we all know how hard you’ve been working and how unfair he is – but you don’t go after a professor that way. They have egos to respect, you know?”_

_Rey toyed with a loose thread on the couch, frowning. She had never been given lessons in etiquette when she was growing up. She had learned to stay silent so that no one noticed her, and she had learned how to defend herself, both verbally and physically, when she was attacked. Those were the two ways she knew how to approach any situation with an authority figure. She’d known her automatic response to Dr. Ren’s anger had been really rash and stupid, but she hadn’t thought it was this bad._

_“So…you think he’s still upset?” she asked. “Even though he said he’d help me?”_

_Poe shrugged. “Probably, yeah.”_

_Finn nodded. “Rey, Dr. Ren holds grudges. He called me a traitor, remember? When I was a harmless_ freshman _. He’s got anger issues.”_

Thinking back to that conversation now, her stomach knotted. A full night of sleep hadn’t done much to ease the anxiety that her friends had instilled in her. She hadn’t thought that Dr. Ren would stay angry with her. Not after how their conversation had ended, with him apologizing and saying a gruff, “See you tomorrow, Rey,” as she was closing the door. But now she was second-guessing that entirely.

 

_I’m going to apologize,_ she decided. _Just to clear the air, I’m going to apologize._ And then he could help her with her research paper and she would pass his class and all would be right with the world.

 

* * *

 

 

After Dr. Ren’s class later that day, she awkwardly trailed him back to his office. She had to double her normal pace to keep up with his ridiculously long strides.

 

As they entered the history department, Dr. Ren was stopped almost immediately. A towering blonde woman had unfolded herself from behind the front desk and planted herself right in Dr. Ren’s path. She was as tall as Dr. Ren in a pair of sparkly stilettos that seemed to Rey to be somewhat impractical for their largely grass-covered campus.

 

“Kylo,” she said, and Rey tried not to choke at the name _Kylo_. “You got another call from Snoke. He wants to see you in his office this afternoon.”

 

Dr. Ren – _Kylo, oh my god_ – looked bored at being summoned by the university’s president. “I’ll call him back after I finish meeting with a student.”

 

At this, the statuesque blonde’s eyes turned to Rey. Needing no further prompting, Dr. Ren drawled, “This is the department’s secretary, Phasma. She runs the whole place. And Phasma, this is Rey Niima.”

 

Dr. Ren had said that Phasma brought the donuts the day before. Rey grinned at her. “Thank you for the donuts. Dr. Ren let me have some, and they were a total lifesaver.”

 

At this, Phasma raised a meticulously groomed brow. She did not return Rey’s smile. Instead, she turned back to Dr. Ren. “Your mail came too. You know where to find it.”

 

Dr. Ren walked towards his office without saying another word. Rey followed him silently.

 

After the door was closed behind him, Dr. Ren said, “Sorry about her. She gave me hell yesterday for the ruckus we made in here and she still hasn’t forgiven me.”

 

At this, Rey felt heat rush to her cheeks. “Um…about that…um…could I say something?”

 

Dr. Ren waved his hand distractedly at her in a way that said _go on._ He sat at his desk and began shuffling papers around. Rey stayed standing, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

 

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for yesterday,” she said. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper with you, and I never should have spoken to you in such a disrespectful way. I feel even worse now that I know that I made Phasma mad at you. I know I don’t deserve your help after how rude I was yesterday, so I’m even more grateful for it. Um…yeah. I just really wanted to clear the air and let you know how sorry I was.”

 

Dr. Ren didn’t say anything for a long moment. He just stared at her over the rim of his glasses. Then he sighed, settling further back into his desk chair.

 

“Was anything you said untrue?” he asked.

 

“What?”

 

“Was anything you said to me yesterday untrue?”

 

“No…?”

 

“Good,” he said. “Then no apology necessary. You felt disrespected by me, and so you stood up for yourself. That’s fine. I respect a student who speaks their mind more than one who slinks off and drops out of my class. And don’t worry about Phasma. She runs a tight ship around here and she’s always mad at me. Though I have to admit I’m usually the one yelling at the student rather than the other way around.”

 

Rey let out a shaky breath and nodded.

 

He eyed her. “That being said, don’t ever talk back like that to another professor. We’ve already established that I’m – how did you put it? – a total jerk. As the university’s resident jerk, I understand where anger comes from, and I understand that you need to express it sometimes. I’d be hypocritical if I said otherwise. But none of your other professors will feel the same way. Do you understand?”

 

Rey nodded again.

 

“Good,” he said. After looking as though he were struggling for a moment, he said, “I want…I want you to know that I’m sorry too. I’m not used to having students with jobs.” Rey understood that. Most of the school’s population was a lot more affluent than she was. It was one of the more expensive universities in the region. “And I – I have a very fast temper. I’ve done a lot of work to improve myself, but I still make assumptions and get angry. For that, I’m…well, I’m sorry.”

 

Rey offered him a weak smile, confused by the direction that conversation had taken but determined to show her appreciation. His apology was certainly stronger than it had been yesterday. It was a stupid thought, but she couldn’t help thinking it – maybe he had thought about how to make the situation right as much as she had. “Thank you, Dr. Ren, for accepting my apology and for giving me your own.”

 

He nodded, suddenly much more businesslike. “Now sit down,” he said. “We have some work to do.”

 

* * *

 

Watching Dr. Ren work at his desk, Rey mused, was almost comical. He had the same standard desk that every other professor had in their offices; however, Dr. Ren was probably double the size of most other professors. He had to hunch his back over his computer to see the keys, and he kept turning the chair so he could shift his long legs around under the desk.

 

Rey was so distracted that she had almost completely lost track of what he was saying until he turned his eyes back on her.

 

“So,” he said, pulling her out of her study of him. It was just as well. He had looked so large and awkward that she had started chanting _fee fi fo fum_ to herself. “Those are the historical databases that will be the most useful for this paper. I’m going to send links of them to you so that you can remember all of them.”

 

She nodded. “Thank you.”

 

“Now, as for subject matter…” he leaned back in his chair. “I don’t want to just hand you a topic. You’ll need to decide on it on your own.”

 

“I know,” she said. “There’s just so much to choose from.”

 

He frowned at her, his usual grumpy expression back in its normal place. “It doesn’t have to be revolutionary, Miss Niima – ”

 

“Rey,” she interrupted. “Please call me Rey.”

 

He ignored her. “It doesn’t have to be revolutionary,” he said. “It just has to fit the parameters. It’s a small paper. You shouldn’t be this stressed until the final paper.”

 

“I told you. I need to pass this class. And I suck at history. So I’m letting myself stress.”

 

“Fine,” he said with a deeper frown. “I think you just need to delve into something from our readings we’ve had. Even if it’s just a phrase. You could build your research off of whatever has caught your eye so far. That’s what most people in the class will be doing anyway. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

 

“Okaayyy…” she said slowly, her mind scrambling to think of what she’d read during all her late nights.

 

“You don’t have to come up with something right now,” he said. “Go back and skim over some of the readings. See what stands out. As long as India and colonialism are involved, it doesn’t matter. You only have to be able to find enough sources to support your paper.”

 

Smiling gratefully, she said, “Thanks.”

 

He waved her thanks away. “You have all weekend to do it. Then on Monday we’ll meet again for me to go over your choice and help you choose the best approach.”

 

Sensing a dismissal, Rey rose from her seat and turned to leave. With a quiet “thank you”, she left his office as he turned himself back around to hunch over his computer once more.

 

* * *

 

The weekend passed uneventfully. Rey worked long days at the garage, and she spent her evenings dedicating herself to her schoolwork. Dr. Ren’s task for her took precedence, and all too soon, the new week began.

 

That Monday morning, Rey went to the coffee shop before class. She had avoided it ever since the disaster with Dr. Ren, not wanting to run into him outside of class too often. However, given their current tentative mentor-mentee status, she decided that the possibility of seeing him was much less daunting than it had been a few days before.

 

Jessika greeted her from behind the counter with a warm smile. Both she and Paige had been so busy that Rey, Finn, Poe, and Rose had barely seen them so far that semester. Rey, always fascinated by sibling relationships, was astounded that Rose was so okay with never seeing her sister Paige.

 

“If I had a sister,” Rey had told her, “I’d want to see her every day.”

 

“Eh,” Rose had shrugged. “I love her, but I don’t need to see her constantly. She’s busy, and I get that. When she comes up for air, she’ll let me know.” Rose’s tone had been light, but she had kept her eyes down the whole time she was talking.

Thinking of that rather disheartening exchange, Rey decided to make more of an effort to get Rose and Paige in the same room that semester.

 

“Jess,” she said after placing her order, “I know that both you and Paige are crazy busy, but you guys need to take a break sometime, right? Could we do a girls night soon? Maybe next weekend?”

 

Jess grinned. “That actually sounds wonderful. I’ll coordinate with Paige and let you know, okay? You look like you could use a break too. Have you been sleeping at all, Rey?”

 

Rey stuck her tongue out at Jess. “Like you’re one to talk.”

 

“Okay,” Jess laughed. “I yield. We’ll _all_ take a break over the weekend.”

 

Satisfied, Rey sidestepped away so that Jess could take care of the line of under-caffeinated undergrads. While she waited for her coffee to be ready, she took out her phone, scrolling through the emails she had ignored that weekend. She nearly dropped her phone when a deep voice said, “Have a nice weekend?”

 

Looking up, she saw Dr. Ren in all his tall, moody glory. He was wearing a black sweater, staying well within his usual color palette, and clutching a huge cup.

 

Rey eyed what was in his hand, ignoring his question. “That’s a big order of hot chocolate, professor. You doing okay?”

 

He rolled his eyes. “Mondays are hard.”

 

“But it doesn’t even have caffeine!”

 

“Mind your own business,” he muttered, taking a swig of his drink.

 

Giving her own eye roll, she picked up her now-ready coffee from the counter. “Heading to class?” she asked.

 

“Yes,” he said, gesturing to the door. “After you.”

 

Dr. Ren, Rey soon discovered, was not a morning person. He didn’t talk as they walked awkwardly to class, Rey trotting next to him to keep up. He just occasionally sighed and drank his hot chocolate. The other students gave them a wide berth as they made their way across campus.

 

Rey tried not to think too hard about how surreal this was. She was walking with the most hated professor on campus. He had basically invited her to walk with him. She’d been friendly with professors plenty of times before, but never with one who was so universally feared. Or so tall. She picked up her pace a bit.

 

“Seriously,” Rey eventually said, trying to distract herself from the discomfort of walking next to him, “what’s the deal with the hot chocolate?”

 

He gave her a grumpy sidelong look. “I like chocolate,” he said simply. “Why do you drink something that tastes like sludge every morning?”

 

“Hey, show some respect. This stuff gives me life. I’d be a zombie in your class every day without it.”

 

“As I recall, it didn’t stop you from falling asleep last week.”

 

She tried to bite her tongue and failed. “And your chocolate hasn’t done wonders on that sweet temperament you’re trying for.”

 

_Shit._

A beat, and then –

 

He _laughed._

 

Well, it was more of a choking noise, but she’d still count it as a laugh.

 

“I guess I deserved that,” he said once his weird choking laugh had stopped.

 

“Mhm,” Rey said nonchalantly, trying to pretend as though her heart hadn’t just stopped in fear after she’d opened her big mouth again.

 

He suddenly eyed her severely, his glasses slipping down his nose a bit. “Did you do what I asked you to this weekend?”

 

“Yes sir,” she said.

 

“ _Now_ she talks to me like I’m a professor,” he muttered under his breath.

 

Unsure of where his mood was, Rey thought it best to stay quiet for the rest of the walk to class. She followed him mutely into the classroom and settled in for what was sure to be another long, confusing week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi y'all! It's been a while. Sorry to make you all wait, but life got very crazy very suddenly. Anyway, I hope you liked it!


	5. Chapter 5

For the next two weeks, Rey and Dr. Ren fell into a routine that wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it was predictable. After class, she’d follow him to his office, where he’d critique her paper proposal, outline, and research with a jarring bluntness. She’d try to throw jokes his way to soften him up, and he’d dodge them with his patented grumpiness.

 

After a particularly brutal session, full of red ink on his part and mounting frustration on her part, she blurted, “Why do you even teach intro classes if you’re so picky about how your students write?”

 

“The head of the department makes me,” he said gruffly as he put a particularly vicious red slash through an entire sentence.

 

“So…have you ever considered lowering your standards for us non-majors?”

 

At that, he looked up at her. “No.”

 

“Ah yes. Because that would just make it too easy on the little freshies.”

 

“Someone has to teach them how hard college will be,” he said, lowering his head to look at her outline again.

 

“How magnanimous of you,” she said flatly.

 

“Yes, well, it will help them in the long run.”

 

She snorted and didn’t pursue the subject anymore.

 

She was slowly adjusting to being around him. It wasn’t so bad once she got used to it. She’d be the first to admit that his temperament was changeable. She could never tell what mood he’d be in, and it was subject to change at the slightest provocation. Sometimes he’d ignore her snarky comments, and at other times he’d snap at her or snort out a laugh.

 

Despite his volatility, though, she found herself being less afraid of him each and every day. The rumors of angry book-throwing and hostile screams seemed more like a distant story than a real and present danger.

 

She doubted that anyone who had spread those rumors about him had seen him chug more hot chocolate than Willy Wonka. If they had, she was pretty sure they’d be a lot less intimidated too.

 

Occasionally, he’d reach into his desk and pull out a piece of chocolate, unwrapping it absentmindedly as he looked at her work. She tried not to laugh each time it happened. Once, he had offered her a square when her stomach rumbled. She took it with a small smile, which immediately turned into a frown when he crumpled up a sheet of her research notes and tossed it into the trash.

 

So yeah, it wasn’t heaven, but she was adapting. She wished she could say the same for Finn. He was actually taking it worse than she was.

 

“How long are you going to be meeting with that guy, Rey?” Finn asked her with a frown over a pizza one night.

 

“Until my paper is done,” she said around a bite of cheese. “But I’ll probably go back for each paper we have to do. He’s so particular. It’ll be helpful.”

 

Finn scrunched his nose. “I know he hasn’t done anything to you yet, but it makes me nervous anyway.”

 

“Oh, come _on_ Finn,” she said with a huff. “I meet him during his office hours. _In his office._ He’s not going to stab a sword through me in there or anything. He’s just doing his job.”

 

Finn rolled his eyes. “I know,” he said. “It’s just…”

 

She grinned at him. “That traitor comment really got to you, didn’t it?”

 

“ _Yes,”_ he groaned. “I was such a young, innocent, impressionable freshman. It completely scarred me.”

 

“Think of it as a battle scar,” Rey suggested.

 

“I’d rather have given him the battle scar,” Finn muttered.

 

Rey reached for another slice and quickly changed the subject.

 

* * *

 

The first Saturday of October found Rey and Rose in Jessika and Paige’s apartment for a girl’s night. After having a hearty meal of brownies and cheap wine, they sprawled out in the living room for a much-needed gossip session.

 

After a traditional round of trashy campus rumors were exchanged, they settled into that comfortable late-night glow that can only come with good company and a little bit of alcohol. As conversation veered away from gossip and turned more towards serious topics, Rey couldn’t wipe the small smile she had off of her face. Rose and Paige were next to each other, with Rose’s head on her older sister’s shoulder. Jess was looking at the two of them fondly as well – clearly, Rey wasn’t the only one who had noticed that the sisters hadn’t seen each other enough that semester.

 

Shortly thereafter, Jess declared that it was time for pampering. Rey, who had never had much practice, had to enlist a giggly Rose’s help with a sheet mask. Of course, when Rey was between bouts of laughter as the slimy stuff touched her face, the bubble was popped.

 

“Rey,” Rose said, “I think you should talk to Paige and Jess about Dr. Ren. They’ve been around campus a bit longer than us – they may know more about him than we do.”

 

“What?” Rey furled her brow and shrugged. “Why? He’s tutoring me. What’s wrong with it?”

 

“ _What?_ ” Jess and Paige screeched in unison, turning to her.

 

Rey explained the situation, calming them a bit once they realized that Rose’s concern did not arise from Rey’s involvement in frisky behavior with a crazy professor (“Rey, you can’t say he’s _tutoring_ you. That sounds like a setup for bad porn.” “But he _is_ tutoring me!”)

 

Jess and Paige ended up being a lot more level-headed about the whole Dr. Ren situation than Finn was, but they still weren’t crazy about it.

 

“It’s smart to get his help,” Paige said as she helped Rose unfold stubborn sheet mask, “but don’t be dumb about it. Always make sure someone knows that you’re there.”

 

Rey put on her own mask, patting it down. “It’s not like he’s going to attack me,” she huffed.

 

“No, Paige is right,” Jess told her, a Twizzler dangling from one hand. “He has his reputation for a reason. You shouldn’t be alone with a man who’s so violent.”

 

“ _Supposedly_ violent,” Rey said, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. “I have never seen an ounce of proof in that.”

 

“Or maybe you _should_ be alone with him,” Jess mused, ignoring Rey’s comment completely. “Imagine how great he’d be with all that pent-up aggression in the – ”

 

Paige sat up straighter, silencing Jess with a cold glare. “Well,” she said a little primly, “that girl who had a crush on him? You know, the one that he’d throw stuff at whenever she went to his office? She was in my lit class sophomore year. She can totally vouch for it. He’s unstable.”

 

“He may be unstable,” Rey allowed, thinking of his ever-changing moods, “but he isn’t dangerous or anything. And he’s helping me pass his class. Remember how I need that? So I can graduate on time? Kind of important.”

 

Paige and Jessika nodded, seeming reluctant to do so.

 

Rey threw a couch cushion at them. “Can’t we talk about boys or something? Like _normal_ college girls?”

 

At that, Paige squealed and rounded on Rose, all thoughts of Dr. Ren forgotten. “Rose! Have you told him yet? You said you were going to.”

 

Rey frowned. “What?” she asked. She was ignored.

 

Rose flushed bright scarlet, a color Rey had only ever seen her cheeks turn when she was completely drunk. “No,” she mumbled. “There just hasn’t been a good time yet.”

 

“What? Are you completely insane?” Paige demanded. “You have to do it!”

 

Rey and Jess shared an equally befuddled look. “Um…care to share with the rest of the class?” Rey asked.

 

Paige glared at her sister. “You haven’t told Rey?”

 

At this, Rose looked even more abashed, if possible. “Umm…no?”

 

Paige snorted and turned to Rey. “Rose has had a crush on someone since freshman year, but she refuses to tell him. This summer I thought I’d convinced her to go for it, but…” she playfully shoved her sister, “she’s too much of a chicken.”

 

Rey beamed. Rose had never admitted to having a crush on anyone. For the entirety of their college careers, Rose had remained single, never sparing a glance for any of the boys in her classes.

 

Rey tried to ignore the fact that she was the exact same way and instead focused on this new development.

 

“Rose!” she exclaimed. “I’m so excited for you! Who is it?”

 

Rose fidgeted, looking down.

 

“Come on,” Paige prodded, while Jessika sat forward and nudged Rose’s shoulder. “Tell her.”

 

In a small voice, Rose mumbled something that sounded a lot like, “Froot Looper.”

 

“Huh?” Rey said.

 

Rose blushed even more. Avoiding Rey’s gaze, she whispered, “It’s Finn. Finn Trooper.”

 

Rey’s mind stalled for a minute as she stared at Rose, her mouth still in a smile that had fallen half open.

 

Rey had never given thought to what would happen if Finn got a girlfriend. Since he’d never had a girlfriend, and she’d never had anyone either, it had never been an issue. She knew she’d never be replaced – they had been inseparable ever since they’d been placed together under the care of Unkar Plutt when they were fourteen – but a new person in Finn’s life would change their dynamic. But, suddenly, with Rose, the thought wasn’t so scary.

 

Rey’s grin could have split her face in half.

 

“ _Rose,_ ” she said earnestly. “This is wonderful!”

 

Rose looked shyly up at her, “It is?”

 

“Yes,” Rey said firmly, taking her hand. “It is.”

 

“Do you…do you think he’ll take it okay? You know – me? Liking him?”

 

“I can’t speak for him,” Rey told her honestly. “But Rose, he’d be a fool to not like you too.”

 

“Aaawwe,” Jess said, raising her wine glass as Rose smiled. “Here’s to Rose’s new boy toy! And Rey’s new powerhouse professor! May both of them be sexually satisfied this semester!”

 

Rey flung her facemask at Jess’s head.

 

* * *

 

 

The next weekend found Rey scrambling to finish her paper for Dr. Ren’s class between her shifts at the garage.

 

That week, he’d finally approved her outline and all of her sources. “You’ve got good bones for the paper,” he told her, glasses slipping down his nose as he did a final read-through. “You could probably just turn in what you’ve got here and still make a better grade than most of your classmates.”

 

“Oh good,” she said breezily. “Then I won’t bother writing the whole thing then.”

 

He frowned at her. “You’d better write this paper, Miss Niima.” He called her by her last name when he wasn’t amused.

 

“It’s Rey,” she told him, resisting the urge to stick out her tongue. “And of _course_ I’m going to write it. I was being facetious.”

 

“Well don’t be.”

 

“Dr. Ren, you’ve practically written this thing for me. It’ll be a piece of cake.”

 

It was not a piece of cake.

 

Halfway through the damn thing, she was slumped on the couch with her head facedown in a pillow and her laptop lying beside her.

 

She just couldn’t make it _work_. Even with all of Dr. Ren’s help, he couldn’t teach her how to make the words she wanted to say flow from her brain to her laptop.

 

“Uurrghhjkfsh,” she growled into the cushion.

 

“Why yes, I often feel that way about couches myself. Ghastly things. You tell ‘em, Rey.”

 

She looked up to see Poe strolling into the apartment.

 

“I knew I should have locked the door today,” she grumbled.

 

“Well it’s a good thing I’m here to see Finn and not you, then, isn’t it?” he said.

 

Rey frowned at him. “I thought you two were hanging out later today.”

 

“Um,” Poe said. “Yeah. Like at this time. You know I’m never early. In fact, I maintain that I currently am and always will be fashionably late.”

 

“Wait…” Rey said, “What time is it?”

 

“4:07,” Poe said. “It’s Saturday, too, in case you didn’t know. October twelfth. The year of our Lord – ”

 

“Oh my god I’m LATE!” she yelped, throwing her blankets off and dashing to her room. She was supposed to have been at the garage seven minutes ago.

 

It took her no time at all to hurriedly exchange her sweatpants for grease-splattered jeans and a t-shirt with more oil on it than clean space. Hurriedly shoving her hair under a baseball cap, she dashed out the door, leaving Poe and her unfinished paper behind in a companionable heap on her couch.

 

Rey didn’t own a car, but fortunately the garage was only a couple of blocks away. She grabbed her bike from a rack on the lower levels of her apartment complex and sped off.

 

Sweating under her ball cap, she pedaled as hard as she could. She _needed_ this job. Without it she couldn’t pay rent and then she’d have to quit school to work full time and –

 

She came to a screeching halt right before barreling into a huge shadow on the sidewalk.

 

“Watch it!” she snapped.

 

The shadow turned, and –

 

“Dr. Ren?”

 

It was her professor, dressed in his usual all-black ensemble and looking very, very angry. Whether due to the anger or the fact that she was wearing clothing that screamed “hobo caught on an oil rig”, it took him a moment to recognize her.

 

“Rey?” His deep voice was incredulous. If his facial expression was anything to go by, he was pretty sure he was cursing whatever god he prayed to that she kept popping up.

 

“Hey, Dr. Ren,” she said. “What’s up?”

 

He looked at her blankly in a total, “Are you kidding me?” kind of way and gestured to the road.

 

There was a big black car next to him with an open hood and smoke billowing out of it. In her haste to get to work, she had completely missed it.

 

“Oh,” she laughed. “Car trouble?”

 

He glowered. “I don’t know what you find so funny,” he said tightly. “But yes, I seem to be stuck.”

 

Rey couldn’t help it. She met his scowl with a beaming smile. She had found the two things that would get her out of trouble with her boss – an excuse for being late and a new customer. Her day had turned around very quickly.

 

“Well, you’re in luck, Professor,” she said brightly, dismounting her bike. “I happen to know a great little place just down the road that can help you out. And if you play your cards right, I just might be able to get you a discount.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, not a lot of Kylo here, but we've gotta give Rey some space from the king of brooding, don't we? I love hearing from you, so drop a comment and let me know what you think so far!


	6. Chapter 6

“It’ll be just a few more minutes!” Rey said cheerily, poking her head around the corner. “The boss is taking care of a few more things, but then you’ll be good to go.”

 

She grinned at Dr. Ren, who was sprawled out in one of the three little plastic chairs in the garage’s waiting area. It wasn’t much of a space – just a little cinderblock alcove that smelled like grease and had a few car magazines from 2007 on a folding table. Dr. Ren, as large and bat-like as he was, dwarfed the room.

 

He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “This is not quite how I expected the evening to turn out.”

 

“Yeah, well,” Rey said lamely, grimacing as she shot a look at the clock. It was 8:43 p.m. “We can’t control when these things happen. It’s one of the hazards of owning a car.” Stepping more fully into the room, she smiled cheekily. “Just be happy you ran into me. I single-handedly saved you from death and disaster. You’re welcome.”

 

He rolled his eyes at her. It was, she noticed, his automatic reaction to half the things she said. “I think I would have found this place on my own, thank you.”

 

“Ah, but you would have had to pay for the tow without me.” It was true. The guys down the road had towed it for her without batting an eyelash. They had a good enough relationship with the garage – and therefore with her – to occasionally lend a hand that was free of charge.

 

Dr. Ren grunted. Knowing she’d bested him, her smile turned smug.

 

Walking over, she sat on the chair next to his, deflating a bit. It had been a long shift. The garage didn’t close until 9:30, but Dr. Ren’s car was the only one left. She could spare a minute to rest. Leaning her head against the wall, she closed her eyes.

 

It was quiet for a while – long enough for her to begin to doze off. Before she could fall too deeply into dreamland, though, Dr. Ren’s deep voice interrupted her descent.

 

“I didn’t know you repaired cars.”

 

Startled, she opened her eyes, blinking blearily. “Huh?”

 

He was looking down at his hands. “I didn’t know this was your job. I thought you worked at the mall or something.”

 

“Oh,” she said, her brain scrambling to catch up with his train of thought. “Yeah. Well I’ve been doing it since I was a kid, and it’s good practical practice for my major. You know – mechanical engineering. And the pay is better than a Gap or something.”

 

He looked at her. She didn’t quell under his stare the way she had at the beginning of the semester. She was too used to him by now. “I see why you’ve been falling asleep so often now. If you work here every day and go to school fulltime, you must be exhausted.”

 

She shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s nothing new. I’ve been tired for most of my life.” Hoping to lighten the oddly depressive mood, she smiled at him. “Your class definitely didn’t make it any easier though.”

 

He cracked a smile at that. “I won’t apologize for it.”

 

“No, no,” she said, waving a hand. “It’s double the work for me since I suck at history so much. Really, it’s no more work than my other classes if you look at it objectively.”

 

He seemed appeased at this. They were quiet for another minute before he spoke again.

 

“Why do you stay here, though? Why not get a less strenuous job? Minimum wage should cover the basics for any college student.”

 

Rey pulled a face. “I’m not spending my income on, like, new lipstick or nights out. I need this job for rent and groceries. It pays well enough to cover that. Better than retail, anyway.”

 

To her surprise, his gaze dropped from hers to the floor. He rubbed the back of his neck. His hair fell forward and blocked the majority of his face from her view ( _Huh,_ she thought distractedly, _it was normally more well-kempt than that_ ), but when he spoke again, his voice was more subdued.

 

“I…” he said. “I had assumed your parents were paying for your housing. I apologize.”

 

“Oh,” she said softly. “No, that’s okay. That’s a normal thing to assume. It’s just…well, my parents are kinda…my parents are dead.”

 

Her words hung heavily in the air. _My parents are dead._

 

Dr. Ren said nothing, freezing completely. He was staring at the floor intently, like the dirty old linoleum might tell him how to respond.

 

Rey fidgeted. She hated dropping the dead parents thing. It always made conversations take a steep downhill turn. She didn’t even remember them. It was terrible, actually. They had died when she was six years old, but she didn’t have a single memory of them. Not one. She had felt guilty about that for most of her life – still did, actually. Sometimes, like on parent’s weekend at the university or when she saw a dad carrying a suitcase on move-in day, she ached to remember her own family so badly that it actually hurt. But most of the time, she didn’t think about it. How could you miss something you never remembered having?

 

She tried to quickly remedy her awkward confession to Dr. Ren. “Don’t worry about it, professor. It’s…well, it’s fine. That sounds awful, I suppose, but it is. I don’t remember them at all. I wish I did, of course. I’d love to have a family. But it’s always been just me. Well, me and Finn. And I’m used to taking care of myself.”

 

There. That sounded like something a street-wizened orphan might say, right? _I’m used to taking care of myself._ That sentence always seemed to absolve adults of their concern. Besides, she _was_ an adult now. It wasn’t unusual for someone her age to be in charge of her own finances.

 

Still looking at the floor, Dr. Ren said, “Who’s Finn?”

 

“Oh, he’s my best friend. And my roommate. We went through the foster system together. I think you know him, actually.”

 

He shot her a puzzled look.

 

“Finn?” she said. “Finn Trooper? You called him a traitor once.”

 

His expression cleared. “Oh. Yeah. Good kid.”

 

She laughed. “Well you should tell him that. He’s terrified of you.”

 

“What?” He sounded genuinely perplexed.

 

“Dr. Ren…I mean, you called him a traitor to his face. And he was a freshman. It killed him.”

 

“What?” He looked upset now. “That was a joke!”

 

She stared blankly. “A…joke…?”

 

“Of course!”

 

“You need to work on your humor. A lot. How was that supposed to be funny?”

 

“He had dropped my class. How would it not be a joke? You know. ‘Hey, traitor.’”

 

“What the hell?”

 

“Have you been in my class this whole time thinking that I just traumatize students for fun?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Well I _don’t_.”

 

“So you’re just incredibly socially awkward then. Don’t know how to talk to anyone properly. Call poor freshmen names until they cry.”

 

He glared at her. Good. They were getting back on to a more comfortable track. “ _No,_ ” he said, teeth clenched.

 

Deciding to push her luck, she smiled at him, sweet as sugar. “Okay, _Kylo._ ”

 

He gawked.

 

She smirked. “Kylo? Seriously? That’s your name?”

 

“It’s a perfectly good name.”

 

“It’s the weirdest name I’ve ever heard.”

 

He huffed, shooting her another glare. “It’s fine.”

 

“Look, I don’t have a mother, but even I can’t imagine one so vindictive that she’d name her precious child Kylo.”

 

Dr. Ren froze, his mouth hanging half-open. Wincing, Rey cursed herself. It always made people uncomfortable whenever she made a joke about being an orphan. She opened her mouth to apologize –

 

But then, very slowly, his lips curved into a smile.

 

“Then count yourself lucky,” he said lightly. “The only thing worse than my mother’s names are her cooking skills. It was a long childhood.”

 

Rey guffawed, her shoulders relaxing again. Dr. Ren chuckled.

 

There was a beat of silence, then he looked at her and said, “Can I ask you something?”

 

“Um…I guess so, yeah.”

 

“You…you were in the foster system?”

 

It was her turn to look down. “Yeah.”

 

“And you don’t remember your parents.”

 

“No,” she said with a small smile that she hoped didn’t look too pitiful. “Not at all.”

 

“So…” He the bridge of his nose. “God, no, I can’t – um – look, I don’t want to ask you anything insensitive or personal or – but – no, um - ”

 

She rolled her eyes. It felt good to roll _her_ eyes at him for once. “Oh for God’s sake, Kylo, spit it out.”

 

He dropped his hand. “It’s Dr. Ren.”

 

“Mhm,” she said noncommittally.

 

“Okay, so…” He paused. “…Why do you have a British accent?”

 

She couldn’t help it. She laughed. A big fat belly laugh that had her nearly sliding out of her chair.

 

“Oh my god,” she said. “Seriously? You thought that might be an insensitive question?”

 

He shrugged, looking more helpless than nonchalant.

 

“You’re totally fine,” Rey assured him. “I guess…I don’t know. I’ve had it my whole life. Child Protective Services think my parents might have been illegal immigrants, since there’s no record of them or anything. But I never lost the accent, no matter how long I lived here. I like it, though. It ties me to the home I had once, you know? Even though I don’t remember it, I like having the reminder.”

 

He smiled. It was a soft smile, and it changed his face in a way that she hadn’t seen before. He suddenly looked younger.

 

Something in Rey’s stomach tightened.

 

Just as he opened his mouth to reply, a sharp rap caused them to both look up.

 

Rey’s boss, Maz, was standing at the edge of the waiting area, the wrench that she had just rapped against the wall with in her hands.

 

“Car’s done,” she said. “You’re all ready to go after you pay.”

 

Dr. Ren stood, his huge frame filling the tiny room. Rey tried to stifle a snort. Next to Dr. Ren, Maz – Rey’s tiny, wiry boss, with her huge glasses and her hair wrapped in a rag – looked to be about the size of a toddler.

 

Rey watched them from her chair as the professor handed Maz his card and she swiped it at their ancient cash register. After he left, Rey knew she’d have to get back to work, cleaning the garage for the night and locking up with Maz. She intended to sit for as long as she possibly could.

 

As if she could tell what Rey was thinking – and, really, Rey wasn’t unconvinced that Maz could read minds – her boss looked up at her as she handed Dr. Ren his receipt.

 

“Go home, Rey,” she said. “You did good work today. The other guys helped me clean up before they left.”

 

Rey’s brow furrowed. “The guys left?”

 

“Yeah,” Maz said. “I’m calling it a night. I’m not as young as I used to be. Everyone’s going home a few minutes early tonight.”

 

Giving her boss a dopey grin, Rey stood, her muscles groaning. “Thank you, Maz. I really appreciate it.”

 

Maz nodded. “Just come ready to work hard on Monday. After a whole day off, I expect you to be on the top of your game when you get back.”

 

“Hey,” Rey protested, “it’s not a vacation day. I’ve got work to do for school.”

 

“Yeah, yeah.” Maz waved her hand. “Abandoning me on one of our busiest days just to write a paper or something. You’d better get one hell of a job when you graduate, kid, to make all of this crap worth it.”

 

Rey could feel Dr. Ren’s stare boring into her. “Yeah, well, I’ve told you about this professor, Maz,” she said breezily. “He’s a total hard-ass. I’ve gotta do good work or he’ll murder me.”

 

Dr. Ren made a weird sound that was somewhere between a grunt and a choke.

 

Maz shook her head. “Dead or alive, make sure I see you for your shift on Monday. _On time._ ”

 

Rey waved at her as she walked out of the garage. “I’ll be here!”

 

She heard Dr. Ren say a gruff thank you to Maz and then follow her outside. Without looking at him, she bent down to unlock her bike. In the fresh air of the night, she suddenly felt her bravado leave her, shy timidity taking its place. She had shared a lot with Dr. Ren tonight, and there was a certain awkwardness that came after over-sharing that was hard to dissipate. It was best to avoid eye contact until he was gone.

 

Her very mature plan was ruined when he cleared his throat behind her. Straightening, she saw her hulking professor looming only a few feet away.

 

“Do you want a ride home?” he asked, gesturing to the sleek SUV behind him. “Your bike will fit in my trunk.”

 

“Oh! Um…” Cursing her sudden meekness, she forced herself to straighten her spine. “Yeah, that would be great. Thanks.”

 

He nodded and then moved forward. Easily picking up her bike, he carried it towards his car. She followed, sliding into the passenger seat as he loaded her bike into the trunk.

 

His car had black leather seats. Of course.

 

He turned to her after he got into the driver’s seat. “Where to?”

 

She gave him the address, relaxing a bit after the car began to move. It really had been a long day. The tension in her limbs began to dissipate, leaving only a numb exhaustion.

 

She was too tired to even really care that she was probably getting oil and grime all over his shiny leather seats. That sounded like a problem for future Rey.

 

After a moment of driving silently, Dr. Ren said in a low voice, “Thank you for your help today.”

 

“Oh, it was no problem. You actually saved my as – my butt,” she corrected quickly. “I had been running late. But bringing in a new customer made up for it.”

 

“So you’re taking a day off tomorrow?”

 

“Yeah. Gotta finish that paper.”

 

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” he said. “Your paper will be better than any of the other students’. They’re all probably starting their research tonight.”

 

She squinted. “Who are you, and what have you done with my uptight perfectionist of a professor?”

 

He chuckled. “I’m the professor who you can thank for teaching you how to actually write a proper research paper. Future engineer or no, you still need to know how to write. It’ll be worth it.”

 

She snorted. “Tell that to my boss. Maz is always on my back about studying too much. She says I just need the math and the practical knowhow, and that I can forget the namby-pamby stuff.”

 

Dr. Ren sniffed. “History is not…namby-pamby.” His voice was strained at the end.

 

“Says you, Mr. I-Have-Never-Left-Academia.”

 

“That’s _Dr._ I-Have-Never-Left-Academia.”

 

“My bad.”

 

He grinned. “No, I’ll admit I’ve never worked outside of the academic sphere. But I still know that history is important. I hate to be cliché about it, but if we don’t pay attention to what happened then, we won’t recognize the signs when it starts happening today.”

 

“Spoken truly like someone who has had way too much time to think about this stuff.”

 

He looked away from the road briefly to narrow his eyes at her. “I know you’ve enjoyed some of the stuff we’ve talked about in my office.”

 

Rey shrugged. “We’re not just going over dates and uprisings and concepts in there, like we do in class. The stuff you’ve taught me in there is more interesting.”

 

“Exactly. It’s more niche. But that’s the kind of history actually making a difference in the real world. The stuff that’s off the beaten path.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

Another eye roll. That was like the third one she’d gotten that night. “No one is making a difference with the stuff that everybody already knows. But the specialists do. There are teams who are discovering the identities of unmarked bodies from the Spanish Civil War. Some are tracing the mutation of venereal diseases that spread in India during colonization. And there are still Native American land disputes in federal courts today that are being researched by historians. Those aren’t obvious things you’d learn about in an intro class. Those are more specific. And they’re what make history still matter today.”

 

“Huh,” Rey said finally.

 

She knew Dr. Ren could tell what was behind that single syllable. “Yes. Exactly. So you’re allowed to like history _and_ be an engineer, Rey. If you’ve liked what we’ve talked about one-on-one, then you like my subject. Plain and simple.”

 

“…Fine,” she said eventually. “Fine, I like the cool stuff in history. But I still don’t like your class.”

 

“I won’t ask you to. It’s remarkably mundane.”

 

“Did you just call your own class boring?”

 

“Yes. The basics are boring. Hence a boring class.”

 

“Okay, so there are actually exciting history classes? Those exist?”

 

“You should take Dr. Scott’s History of Medicine class. It’s basically just plagues and blood and cannibalism.”

 

“Gee, sounds like a fun time,” she said drily. “Unfortunately I don’t have room in my schedule. Not if I’m going to graduate on time. But, as you can see, I’m just all broken up about it.”

 

“That’s a shame,” he responded, matching her tone. “You won’t get any more days off of work for research papers then.”

 

“Maz will be thrilled.”

 

“I must admit, I haven’t seen many auto shops owned by women,” Dr. Ren said. “Your boss is…”

 

“Very small? Very aggressive?”

 

“I was going to say brave and talented for making it so far in a field dominated by men,” he said loftily. “But your suggestions work too.”

 

“Yeah,” Rey said with a smile. “Maz is awesome. The garage used to belong to her husband, but he passed away when she was still young, and she just decided to keep running it herself. It’s the only shop in town owned by a woman. And it’s one of the only ones that hire women too.”

 

“You admire her.”

 

“Very much. And she’s kind of been a mentor to me. She’s taught me a lot, and she always makes sure I have enough to pay rent.”

 

“Speaking of…” Dr. Ren said. They were pulling into the parking lot of her apartment complex. He parked in an empty space and turned to her.

 

“Thank you for making my evening slightly better than it would have been.”

 

She snorted. “You’re welcome. Thanks for driving me home slightly faster than I would have biked.”

 

“Okay, fine. You’re right. That sounded insincere. Rey, thank you for keeping me entertained. I appreciated your company.”

 

Smiling now, she replied, “Thank you for driving me home. It was a lot better than biking home, really.”

 

With a nod and an, “I know,” he got out of the car and headed toward the trunk. She followed suit. By the time she had scrambled out and to the back, he was already lifting her bike out.

 

She took the handlebars from him, ready to wheel it to the bike rack outside her building, when he stopped her.

 

“My name isn’t actually Kylo.”

 

She whipped her head up to meet his eyes. “ _What?_ ”

 

“I changed it when I was sixteen. Was going through a bit of a rebellious phase and wanted to piss my parents off. I also tried to learn the drums. That part of the rebellion didn’t stick as well as the name did.”

 

“You – what – that – ” she spluttered. “But why _Kylo_? That’s the stupidest – ”

 

“Yes, I already know your thoughts on it,” he said with a huff. “I don’t know. I thought it sounded cool. I was an angsty teen.”

 

“Oh my god, you had a goth phase, didn’t you?”

 

“I’m not answering that.”

 

“You _did_. Oh my god, the clothes all make sense now.”

 

“What’s wrong with my clothes?”

 

“They’re all so dark. It’s like you’ve been in mourning all semester.”

 

He raised an eyebrow, eyeing her grease-stained t-shirt and ratty pants.

 

“I never said I was a shining example to live by, okay?” she said.

 

“So now that you can’t tease me about my name anymore, you’re going to pick on my clothes.”

 

“Who said I can’t tease you about the name? You actually chose to be named Kylo. That is _so_ much worse than your mom doing that to you.”

 

He pinched the bridge of his nose, pushing up his glasses. “Just go inside and go to bed, Rey.”

 

“Gladly,” she said. “Goodnight, Kylo.”

 

He gave her one last eye roll. “Goodnight, Rey.”

 

With a nod, she turned her bike towards her apartment building and started rolling it that direction.

 

“Rey?”

 

Turning, she looked back at him. He looked uncomfortable again, like he had right before he’d asked her about her accent.

 

“Yes?”

 

“My name is Ben. My real name, that is. Ben Solo.”

 

It was silent for a moment. Then, slowly, she smiled.

 

“I like that one,” she said quietly.

 

He ran a hand through his hair. He almost looked self-conscious. “Um. Thanks.”

 

They stood there, just looking at one another, until he said once more, “Goodnight, Rey.”

 

“Goodnight, Ben.”

 

As she turned away, she heard him mutter, “For the love of god, do not call me that in front of the other students.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! Look! I updated!
> 
> A very important note here: a lot of your comments have been saying something along the lines of loving the slow burn in this fic. That's very intentional. It's really, really important to me that I establish a friendship - and therefore as much of an equal relationship as possible - between the two characters. As someone who has had both professors and supervisors show inappropriate interest in me in the past, the last thing I want to do is write a story about some gross professor coming onto an innocent student. I want for them to be on equal footing before anything ever happens. Also, I feel like it's important to note that in this fic they're only like seven years apart in terms of age difference. There are a lot of bad ways this could go, and so I'm trying to make it as appropriate as possible, which means, yes, there's going to be more slow burn. Hope that's alright with you all.


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